The Pope County Quorum Court voted Tuesday to discontinue dispersing federal forestry funds to several area schools.

Only Dover and Hector will receive payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) funds this year. In the past, Atkins, Russellville and Pottsville also received small amounts of the federal funds paid to the county to offset loss of property tax revenues due to the presence of non-taxable federal forestry acres.

The court also voted to discontinue the dispersement of the portion of PILT funds usually allocated to the Pope County Library.

Pope County received $362,350 in PILT funds this year. Justices approved $98,376 to be paid to the Dover School District and $265,472 to the Hector School District. The county road fund will receive $40,262 an the remaining $56,615 will go to the general fund.

Atkins, Pottsville and Russellville have fewer federal forestry acres within their school district boundaries, and under past practices would have received $163.18, $3,565.38 and $12,561.85 in PILT funds, respectively.

The Pope County Library would also have received $16,104, based on past disbursement allocations.

In the face of a tightening county budget, justices voted to cut the PILT disbursements this year, with stated plans to phase out all outside disbursements by 2015.

“We’re not in the business of giving the school districts money,” Justice Doug Skelton said. “This isn’t designed for schools; it’s designed for county general.”

Skelton made a motion to give Dover and Hector slightly smaller amounts that matched the actual amounts the districts had budgeted for anticipated PILT receipts. That motion failed, with only Skelton, James Kusturin Jr. and David Ivy voting in favor of the motion. Those justices also stood as the sole votes against the motion that ultimately set the PILT disbursement amounts.

Also on Tuesday, justices discussed a proposed amendment to the ordinance outlining the county’s settlement with Capstone, which operates a disposal well in Pope County.

The amendment was proposed by Justice Ben Cross, who made the motion to strike the language which forbade Capstone from operating at the site during nighttime hours and on Sundays.

Cross said he felt the county must repeal that language “as a matter of law and civil liability.” Barring a company from operating a free enterprise in the same manner that other businesses are able to operate could put the county at liability, he said.

Justice Don Daily said he does not like the idea of the company operating at the site during nighttime hours.

Ivy noted the language restricting operating hours was also included in the order passed down from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission permitted Capstone to operate the well.

Judge Jim Ed Gibson asked Ivy to call the commission and seek further information about the restriction.

The ordinance was read for the first time and will remain on the agenda for the court’s August meeting.

Justice Mary Metz-Blaylock was not in attendance Tuesday. In other business, the court:

• Heard the second reading of an ordinance to repeal the hiring freeze;

• Passed an ordinance appropriating $96,400 from the surplus investment fund to purchase four vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department;

• Passed an ordinance amending the insufficient check fee ordinance;

• Appropriated $5,000 from the EMS grant fund;

• Passed a resolution refraining from supporting the blueway designation of the White River;

• Appropriated $43,487.40 from the grant fund to finalize the expansion at the Senior Center;

• Transferred funds within the Senior Center grant fund;

• Appropriated $10,732 from the grant fund to purchase electronic poll tablets for the Election Commission and $918.92 from the Election Commission’s fund to pay sales tax on the tablets;

• Appropriated $2,500 from the county clerk’s fund to purchase modules to make the tablets compatible with the county’s voter registration system.

I have been in touch with the auditing division of the Arkansas oil and gas commission, and they have directed me to sources within their records that will allow me to get an accurate count on the number of trucks that have deposited brine into wells within pope county, and an accurate figure on the amount of money that the county has lost by failing to levy the five dollar fee per truck surcharge that the county would have been due had Mr. Gibson called for a vote on the matter four years ago.